Like some other of the poets we are looking at this week (George Herbert and Andrew Marvel), John Donne was a part of the seventeenth century group of poets who came to be known as the metaphysicals.  Follow the link for a fairly comprehensive site on the poet, his life and work.

In "Death Be Not Proud," we see some of the recurrent themes of the group, the attempt to come to terms with our own mortality, the place of the spirit and the dynamic that exists between the two.

Donne works principally by deflating the terrible image we have of Death.  His Death is no all-powerful grim reaper, but a fairly pathetic slave at the whim and mercy of others, like "fate chance, kings and desperate men." 

Not a princely figure at all, but a tawdry figure, more likely to dwell in a ghetto, a slum, or a battlefield, than a palace

Like Herbert in "Easter Wings," Donne is playing the role of a Christian propagandist here.  Offering a vision of salvation through faith and a way to beat death.  This is part of a sequence of poems called the Holy Sonnets.  The structure of the sonnet contributes significantly to the meaning of the poem.

The octave outlines the premise (personifying Death and addressing him directly in a very condescending manner) that his power and terror have been exaggerated, and we are needlessly afraid of his power. 

The sestet compounds that image by suggesting that there is a way to render death powerless, in effect by killing it.  Clearly, what Donne has in mind is the notion of Christian salvation and afterlife.  How can one die if after death one is born again?

Does the religious message of Donne's poem obstruct the art or enhance it?  What are the legitimate purposes of art?  When a text becomes propogandistic, either for religious or political purposes, does it diminish the text?

Comment on the way in which Donne personifies Death here; how does he do it?  Does Death become like the "Offthemark" reaper figure, a figure mocked, or made fun of, or something else?

This poem, like some of the others we have already looked at is driven by a very formal rhyme scheme, what are the advantages and disadvantages attached to such formalism?  Click here for the sonnet structure breakdown.  The formal structure of the poem matches very formal and logical patterns of argument in this and other Metaphysical poems (compare for example, this very similar sentiment in a poem, "A Dialogue-Antheme" by George Herbert).  Follow the links for discussion of some of the other selected texts this week.  Click here for Herbert.  Click here for Marvell. 

On a different note, why do you think more modern poetry often drifts away from such rigid structures like Arnold's "Dover Beach" ?